Day 20 || Fill Your Own Damn Cup

Sometimes we get so caught up in helping others we forget to take care of ourselves.

You cannot light yourself on fire to keep others warm. You will burn out and you will both end up suffering.

It is helpful to remember that can only pour from a full cup. If you are sustaining a 75% full cup and you give away 50%, you end up with 25% full cup. You will never be able to replenish yourself in a way that is sustainable and thus you will be unhappy and your ability to give will be far less fulfilling. You must be able to pour and expect nothing back — and to do that, you must have a cup full enough to provide for yourself. That way you can supply others with the overflow, which will continue to overflow since you aren’t depleting the foundation resources.

If you are a caretaker and don’t see how you can catch up on caring for yourself first, ask for help. See if you can create time and space for yourself — so that everyone around you can become a little more self sufficient, and you can focus on refueling.

Ideally you can start finding the same amount of fulfillment in filling your own cup as much as you do in filling others.

This was a transcript of Day 20 of the Make Your Damn Bed Podcast — a low-key, real talk, morning motivation podcast to get you out of bed so you can start making it.